New guidance for assessing HMO planning applications.

Highland Councillors are being invited to adopt revised guidance to help assess planning applications for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) across the Highlands. 

Comments have been taken on board from a public consultation in late 2012, which included a debate on the options for Inverness City Centre at the Council’s City of Inverness and Area Committee. A total of 164 representations were received. A report which outlines the results of the consultation and a recommended new approach is to be considered by the Planning Environment and Development Committee on Wednesday 16 January.

The purpose of the Supplementary Guidance is to support high quality HMO accommodation in appropriate locations and, in order to ensure mixed and balanced communities, to prevent the creation or exacerbation of concentrations in particular areas.

The report highlights the on-going demand for shared accommodation, including HMO, across Highland as evidenced in the Housing Need and Demand Assessment (2010). While this is the case the demand for accommodation from these users is more likely to focus on smaller shared accommodation i.e. between 3-5 unrelated people.

The revised guidance would allow flexibility for the market to respond to the needs and demands for shared accommodation in Inverness City Centre, which could help create a varied, well used city centre with the potential to enhance community safety and help move forward the re-use of many vacant and derelict upper floor units within the City Centre.

This proposed policy approach in Inverness City Centre will be closely monitored and if the concentration of houses in multiple occupation reaches 10% of all residential properties within the City Centre then the policy will be reviewed. The guidance also strengthens the previous policy to provide clarity and certainty on what issues will be considered when assessing planning applications for houses in multiple occupation across Highland.

Such assessments can now consider the cumulative impact on the character of the area, a potential increase in noise and disturbance, as well as impacts on residential and/or business amenity.

The report to committee states that the Council is actively seeking to use less large scale HMO accommodation and will consider a proposal to develop purpose-built shared accommodation outwith the city centre in Inverness.